Speech #1140056332

We were ready to risk our lives to find a safer place. The mayor of Lesbos has been generous and thoughtful in addressing the suffering. He told me he often thought he was handling a ticking time bomb with this refugee crisis. Instead. this island has become an example of what the rest of the world can do. In Athens. we visited with an impressive NGO known as Praksis that is giving unaccompanied minors a safe. nurturing place to stay while they attempt to place them with families. The United States leads the world in financial assistance for this Syrian refugee effort. but we have a moral obligation to do that and more. I have called on the administration to accept 100.000 Syrian refugees. I am a cosponsor of the emergency supplemental bill addressing refugee assistance. recently introduced by Senators GRAHAM and LEAHY. Allow me to put the 100.000 number in perspective. Germany has agreed to accept 800.000 of these Syrian refugees. It is estimated that there are 4 million total. The United States accepted 750.000 Vietnamese refugees and over 500.000 Cuban refugees after the Castro regime took over. Those Cuban refugees included the fathers of two sitting U.S. Senators. one of whom is running for President of the United States. We accepted over 200.000 Soviet Jews who were being persecuted in that country. We have accepted refugees from Somalia and from different places around the world. such as Bosnia. We have assimilated them into America. and we can do it again. When we go through this process of accepting refugees. we carefully check their backgrounds to make sure that they are not a threat to the United States or anybody who lives here. I think we should continue to do that. but the fact that only 1.700 have made it to our Nation in the last 4 years tells us that we need to do more. I will continue to be a strong advocate for humanitarian safe zones in Syria so the people there can have a safe place to be treated for their illnesses and to at least live until this war comes to an end.